Ricoh Pro C7100 textured printing problem

[Bloomfield]

Hi everyone,

Having some ongoing problems with this machine and printing on various textured materials.
Have tried various things including increasing the paper transfer current but with limited success.

Has anyone any tips or tricks for improving these results?

Any help would be great, thanks.

Cheers.

 

[mazengh]

Try using a smaller sheet, we have the same machine and it doesn't do well on textured paper when the paper size is big

 

[msaeger]

Have you tried picking textured for the paper type?

 

[mazengh]

I did... Even when this setting is selected it doesn't print properly on textured paper when the sheet size is big

 

[Bloomfield]

Hi, thanks for those replies.

We have tried textured but it didn't seem to make any difference. We've also tried increasing the heat and voltage of various options in the advanced menu but to no avail.
Had a slight improvement printing the image 'one up' in the center of the sheet. (1 A5 in the middle of an SRA3).

Will try the reduced sheet size tip (boss willing) and post the results.

Thanks again.

 

[rocketjam]

We have a 7110. On ours, you have to add the paper to the paper library and choose textured for the paper type. It doesn't work if you choose textured but just use a manual paper setting.

 

[msaeger]

What problem are you having exactly anyway? Is the whole sheet having an issue or just part of the sheet?

 

[thebluesdude]

Had ours about 7 months never got a decent textured print out of it, despite holding onto all the wonderful samples, buying the recommended identical media and not even the tech can get it to print properly! They have demanded to know what Ricoh ran the textured calendar on settings wise but it's been none responsive from head office! Still ongoing. I feel your pain.

 

[msaeger]

What kind of paper are you guys having trouble with exactly? A linen or something else?

 

[hojoclan]

Hi Bloomfield

I had my Ricoh tech in yesterday, Friday, and I mentioned this post to him as he has worked on the c71xx from new and he was quite surprised to here you were having issues on textured stock as he has had no complaints from his clients.
How textured is the stock. He did say that on heavy textured paper you may need to adjust the AC transfer bias more to the negative side, by which I mean you need to go from -150 to -250 for example. Also on my c9110 I have a setting called Paper Transfer High Pressure Mode which is for textured or thick paper, do you have this setting in you advanced paper settings, might be worth a try if you do.
Another thought, do you have settings for image transfer. This adjusts the amount of toner that goes down onto the Image Transfer Belt that pushes in to the paper. If you increase the negative number as above it should place more toner on to the belt and hopefully on to the paper. You may also have a setting for toner adhesion which goes from -5 to +5 if you go towards the positive will also help lay more toner on the Image Transfer Belt. I have had to use these settings in the past to bump up the black (K) for certain jobs as out of the box solid blacks on the c91xx aren't the best. For one job in particular I raised it up to +4, I also raised the image transfer bias from -60 to -80. Along with increasing the paper transfer bias to make sure the extra toner goes on to the paper.
I also forgot there are two paper transfer currents, The paper transfer Current and the Paper Transfer Current AC both of these need to be altered, more or less the same, and its best to increase the 2nd side slightly more than the 1st.
Also I have used the term Bias instead of Current. When dealing with techs we always use bias but the menus use current. Sorry if there is any confusion.

Hope some of this helps but if your tech can't sort it you need to get it escalated and get a Ricoh expert in.

 

[Bloomfield]

Thanks for the posts and apologies for the delay in replying,

We've had little success with anything textured, conqueror laid for example.

As I posted previously, we have tried altering the paper transfer current but it didn't make a great difference. I've tried some of the problem stock through an older Xerox machine we have (which seems to run a lot hotter, it curls the paper) and it printed fine. Not a solution though as the Ricoh is a cheaper click.

I'll try some of those other settings suggested and report back.

Thanks again.

 

[nemprint.dk]

Its a common problem on this machine. I got the first one in Denmark. And after 4 month I returned it. The machine have problems on textured paper. AND all uncoated papers. And they even brought a specialist in from Holland to fix it. He told me that was just how the maxhine was - within spec. Because the paper wasnt approved for the machine in their catalouge.
There is a half workaround. You can user a "high quality" paper from your stock libary. That will make the machine run at half the speed, and the textured prints will look better. They wont be good, but better.
After I struggeled with this and uncoated papers as well, I got a xerox versant 2100. And it prints perfect on our textured paper.

 

[Bloomfield]

An update:

After a visit from an engineer, we seem to have solved some issues with one simple tweak.

An ongoing problem with transparencies and this texture problem were improved greatly by reducing the line screen/halftone mode from "200 dot fine text and graphics" down to

175 dot

 

[kdw75]

The biggest problem for me is that coming from Xerox, the Ricohs give you so many more options. It takes some time to get used to what each setting does and when to apply it. Most I will probably never use.

 

[ColorMonkey]

This topic is one that I go back and forth with my tech. I tell him the 651 seems to do a better job laying down than the 7110 and he as I am, is surprised. When we bought the 7110 it was supposed to be leaps and bounds better than the 651 handling textured but I have yet to see that.

The problem seems to get worse as you print to wider media. It seems the center of the sheet if you can get to lay done acceptable, the 1 1/2 f/b edges will not lay down the same. So 13" sheets forget about it on most stocks even the factory spec'd stocks.

If someone here does not find printing on textured to be a problem on the 7100s, please chime in and share the secret sauce!

It's not like it can't print on textured, the problem is if you are printing screens of have a decent size solid it falls short most of the time. The kicker I run into is as the machine runs the output quality as far as laying down can be random. In other words you get a cataloge entry dialed in and then start to run the job and you can see the quality begin to degrade.

Weird as I say due to the hype of the 7100s compaired to the 651 when dealing with textured media.

 

[Shawnd]

I am having the same issue with coated stocks and being able to lay down a solid, solid blacks are pretty much grey, I find it gets worse on longer runs so its good to know I am not the only one that sees that. Seems the more age and clicks my 7100's get the worse they get for being able to lay down a solid on anything.

 

[ColorMonkey]

An update:

After a visit from an engineer, we seem to have solved some issues with one simple tweak.

An ongoing problem with transparencies and this texture problem were improved greatly by reducing the line screen/halftone mode from "200 dot fine text and graphics" down to

175 dot

So I tested this with a couple stacks, one being a laid stock. I did notice it seemed to lay down BETTER. It did not solve the problem on my end but it did seem to help.

So this might be something to try for sure for those that are having issues.